Here's a hot tip: asparagus is the new Beaujolais

Each morning this week, David Brown will crouch nervously in the soil and look intently for green spears struggling into the sunlight. When they are 18cm tall, he may be on his way to winning the most competitive culinary race since the days when wine drinkers avidly awaited Beaujolais Nouveau.

The dawn of the asparagus season has become a red letter day for a rapidly growing industry that, boosted by celebrity chef endorsements and fashionable restaurants, rebuts the notion that foreign imports have rendered the seasons meaningless.

The British asparagus season traditionally ran from 1 May to 21 June, but warm winters and the race to satisfy tastebuds have seen crop readiness creep forward to early April. Harvest of the vegetable - renowned as an aphrodisiac since Roman times - will rise by an estimated 25 per cent this year. Brown, whose 40-acre asparagus farm on the Isle of Wight is the southernmost in the country, hopes to be first.

The farmer has bet £1,000 with Ladbrokes that he will have crops by Friday at odds of 1/2, meaning that he stands to win £1,500. 'To be honest, I put a bet on to highlight the start of the English season, and after the recent weather I'm not expecting to see the money,' said Brown, whose flutter was highlighted by the British Asparagus Growers Association.

Growers require patience: Brown, 51, planted asparagus crowns two years ago, had a brief 10-day pick last year and hopes to spend eight to 10 weeks picking in his first full harvest. 'At the moment the ground is broken in some places and there's the odd asparagus spear coming through. I'm going to be checking every day until there's a reasonable number of pickable spears. They have to be 18cm to be worth cutting.'

Once picked, the spears will be washed and cut to lengths of 12-18cm. They are put into 10kg boxes and sent to suppliers, before being packed for supermarkets. Brown expects to produce 25-30 tonnes this year. 'It's been promoted strongly in the past couple of years and, compared with imports, we like to think English asparagus has more of a crack to it as it doesn't have to travel as far.'

As chefs and consumers return to cooking with the seasons, the domestic asparagus industry was worth nearly £7 million last year. Celebrity chefs Raymond Blanc, Brian Turner and Antony Worrall Thompson are joining the marketing campaign this year. Tesco will stock asparagus from 11 April and expects farmers to cash in by extending the season to the end of June.

John Burton Race, the TV chef, offers 30 different asparagus dishes at his restaurant, the New Angel in Dartmouth, including warm asparagus with poached egg and hollandaise sauce, and asparagus in a puff pastry box with pleurottes and a slice of foie gras on top. He said: 'These asparagus dishes fly out of the door. There is now an air of expectancy before the new season. In England it's terrific; don't buy out of season from around the world, because it's tasteless.'

Nathan Dellicott of Barfoot's of Botley, a farming marketing organisation, said: 'Asparagus is becoming much more commercially available and demand around the UK is growing. It used to be a rich man's vegetable, but now it's another food that people can put on their plates. There's a lot of money going into advertising and recipes in women's magazines this year.

'Asparagus still has an eagerly awaited British season, like runner beans or strawberries. With the onset of warmer summers, the season is shortening at the other end. Should we put that down to global warming or better techniques? I wish I had the answer.'

Ben Newmarch, asparagus buyer at Tesco, said: 'Extending the asparagus season by a few weeks is not only a masterstroke for local growers, but is a great example for other British produce growers to follow. Thanks to better production methods, British fruit and vegetable farmers can now prolong their growing seasons to boost sales and reduce the need for imports.'

A delicacy for all seasons

Strawberries

Season: Formerly six weeks in summer and synonymous with Wimbledon, now mid-April to mid-December.

History: Cultivated by the Romans as early as 200BC and once regarded as an aphrodisiac. Elsanta is the variety preferred for its yield, shelf life and taste. Gardening expert Monty Don has complained: 'You have polytunnels sort of raping the landscape - it is pure vandalism.'

Runner beans

Season: August to mid-September

History: Brought to the British Isles in the 17th century by John Tradescant (gardener to Charles I) and grown as a decorative plant before being used as a food in Britain.

Described by Delia Smith as 'the crown prince of all British vegetables'. Best harvested early because they are eaten whole, including the pod.

New potatoes

Season: May to July

History: First cultivated in Peru 6,000 years ago, brought to Europe by conquistadors in 1536. Drake and Raleigh are among possible candidates for having introduced the potato to England. Varieties are classified according to their growing season. Potatoes that are taken out of the ground earlier than the others in the crop are called 'new' or 'earlies'.